Category Archives: Good things!

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Packing up my life and starting over.

So I\’ve been hoarding boxes from work.  I don\’t get near the sheer amount of deliveries I used to get when working in a restaurant so I\’ve been saving them up for a while.  My hearing with the regie de lodgement is on Friday (OMFG!) and I need to be prepared for that!  Thankfully a lot of it is essentially printing out letters and making sure I have copies of all the images/video that I need as well.  Have to go out today and get some blank CD\’s I think.

As much as I hate moving (I really, really do!) I hate packing, trying to find a moving company, a new apartment and all those things I am actually looking forward to it in a way.  I\’m proud of what I\’ve done with this place.  I left a lot of stuff behind when I moved from Ontario to Montreal and even more so when I split up with Jeff.  So moving in here was an accomplishment.  It\’s MINE and everything that\’s in it is also mine.  It\’s the first apartment I have ever gotten that\’s been truly on my own terms.  Just me, myself and I.  Only my name on the lease and no one Else\’s.

Everything in it also belongs to me.  Some of it was donated by a good friend who moved to another country (thanks Carly) and that was a huge help.  Regardless of what happens on Friday (I put in a request to kill my lease early) I\’ll still be moving out of here sooner as opposed to later.  As of July 1st I will have lived here for 3 long years and I have accumulated a lot of stuff in that time frame.  I\’ve outgrown this place and need to get out of here.  There\’s no storage, the neighbors upstairs are crazy and I could go on and on and on…  However I won\’t.

I will admit, I will kind of miss it here.  Not that much though, as this apartment has  turned into quite the problem child and just keeps getting worse.  So as much as I am dreading the actual aspect of moving, I\’m looking forward to moving on.  Hopefully to a bigger and better place that\’s got more storage and more of what I need!

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What keeps me busy…

Has also been keeping me sane.

My boss asked me once how I know how to do all the stuff that I do.  Necessity is the mother of invention for one thing and not only that, I am a doer and a thinker.  I\’m also exceptionally smart and I work with my hands.  I have yet to meet a Chef (including myself) who couldn\’t at least \”MacGyver\” something to make it work until we could call in a professional.  I\’m also an artist.  Life isn\’t one dimensional to me and instead of being a princess and throwing my hands up in the air saying \”OMFG THIS IS BROKEN SOMEONE COME FIX IT\” My first thought that usually comes to mind is:

How can I fix/do this myself?

Being in a creative industry also helps.  I use several forms of raw materials and turn them into something else.  Sometimes they\’re brilliant, sometimes they\’re a total train wreck.  However, I learn and keep on learning because I enjoy my independence and the ability to do things for me simply because I can.  I do not relish in being helpless and weak (either mentally or physically) and will try just about anything once.

Including chocolate beer.  Which was a mistake needless to say…

But I digress.

The best part of being a Chef?

Having one kick ass imagination!

Behold:

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Book details!

OK so as many of you know, I have a book already published through blurb.  Which is grossly over-priced and VERY inconsistent with their printing so needless to say, I\’m NOT happy!

I found a fabulous independent, not  for profit publisher through a co-worker in North Bay ON.  Who\’s offering me a MUCH better book at a FAR more reasonable price!  So here\’s the details that your all dying to know:

It\’s 8.5 x11\” (my old one was 6.25×6.25)

It\’s spiral bound so it will lay flat and co-operate more then my old book which was perfect bound (as in all the pages are glued into the spine, not ideal for a cook book)

It has over 200, yes that\’s TWO hundred plus recipes inside.  Including: Appetizers & finger foods, soups, salads, comfort food & mains, desserts, cakes, cookies, Darcy\’s delectables, drinks, marinades, dressings, vinaigrette\’s, biscuits, dough and more!

Lots of full color images

It\’s printed on premium, card stock paper so it\’s far more durable!

It\’s for charity!  My foundation at that in case you were wondering.

Fun food facts, substitutions, definitions, conversion charts and related things.

It\’s practical!  Everything in the book you can find at most local grocery stores without having to go to some gourmet store and pay out the ass for some foreign spice you\’ve never heard of let alone tasted or something narsty like squid ink.  (No thanks!)

Some delightful smart-ass commentary from yours truly!

All copies will be autographed (which can be personalized for you) and each book is a numbered, limited edition book!

I\’m not going with a huge publishing company that will sell on my behalf or anything like that.  So this book will NOT be sold in stores, if there\’s copies left over, I might try and sell them on Amazon since I will have an ISBN number.

The cost for each book is $25.00 CAD.  Plus the cost of shipping should you require it.  As much as I would love to hand out free copies to everyone *I* pay for this book too, hell even I don\’t get a free copy and while she\’s VERY reasonable it\’s not feasible or affordable enough for me to do so.  Trust me when I say that I\’m not making a killing off of them, because I assure you I am not.

I would have to sell them for considerably more ($30-35.00 each) to make any real money.  This is just a side project I did because I could and I don\’t feel that it\’s right to ass rape people for a crappy book full of pretty pictures and little to no use-able content.  I would sell it for cost, however it\’s for my charity to raise money for our not for profit status and some of it will be going directly to suicide related not for profit foundations as well.

Here\’s a shot of the cover!

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So if you don\’t live in Montreal and would like a copy, please e-mail ASAP so we can work out payment details and I will have it shipped in time for Christmas!  I Do have a pay-pal account, accept money transfers and if those methods don\’t work, we can discuss it!

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The giving tree

We\’re finally getting scholastic at work thanks to some of my very ambitious and hard working colleagues!  When I was a child I LOVED scholastic!  I would bring home the two page selections of the month clutched in my chubby fist in the eager anticipation that my parents would let me buy a book.  Mercer Mayor books (the little critter series) and Robert Munsch being two of my favorite authors when I was a child.  I loved when the box would arrive and would dash home to get my poppa to read me a story.

I loved to read when I was a child and as an adult that\’s a love that has carried with me through the years.  So you can imagine my nostalgia excitement when the opportunity was presented to order it through work.  It was surreal, instead of sitting in the staff room it was almost as if I was transformed back 25 years sitting in class ogling over the paper dreaming about what book I wanted.  Except this time I didn\’t have to ask mom & dad for a cheque, I could write my own!  There were squeals of delight from all of us as we all seemed to be thrown back in time with the teachers picks selection which included some classic literature that we all had enjoyed as children.

So I ordered the giving tree by Shel Silverstein

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Well it came in on Friday (hooray!) and I took it home and was looking forward to having dinner with Pete and showing him my book!  So there we were sitting on my couch and we were talking and I asked him to pass me the book that was beside him.  He says:
\”looks like a children\’s book\”
\”It is, but it\’s classic literature and I love it! Have you ever read it?\”
\”no\”
\”OMFG Really? I LOVE this book! I did a video based on this in grade 9!\”

So I gave him the gist of the story and opened it up so he could see and much to my surprise and delight we sat on my couch side by side and he read it to me.

Yeah I know, makes your heart melt doesn\’t it?

Halfway through he said this is going to be sad isn\’t it?  I know it\’s going to be sad.  I assured him that it was nothing of the sort and to just keep going, somehow I knew that he would love this book as much as I did.

I was right.

After the last page was read, he buried his head in my shoulder and all was quiet for a while.  The meaning of the story is profound to some and I knew that it was as profound to him as it is to me.

Could I adore this guy any more then I do now?

I also ordered where the wild things are and he was very cute with his exclamation of:  I LOVE THIS BOOK!

Me too babe, me too.

Then we got to talking about Robert Munsch and I ordered the mini collection from Scholastic and I also ordered love you forever from Amazon and neither one of us can\’t wait to have story time again.

😉